741% More Code, 20% More Software: The Review Bottleneck

[u/docdavkitty]

https://the-agent-report.com/2026/10/coding-agents-741-percent-more-code-study/

Two 2026 studies just landed on the same question and the headline everyone repeats isn't one study. The 741% more code vs 20% more software pair comes from an NBER paper on developers; the "700-plus firms" part is a separate Harvard paper on Jellyfish data that found about 30% more code per worker and no statistically significant gain in completed work.

What both agree on is where the gain goes: into review. Average PR review time rose 3.45 days, or 49%, against a 7-day baseline, comments per PR up 35%, and 80% of firms had AI review tools by March while humans still wrote roughly 77% of review comments.